


is it true hurt people hurt people?

by ShyAudacity



Series: brown eyed boy drinks his misery [1]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Aftermath, Aftermath of Violence, Angst, Archie Andrews Needs a Hug, Beating, Dissociation, Gen, Homeless Jughead Jones, Hurt Archie, Hurt/Comfort, Jughead Jones Needs a Hug, Kidnapping, Minor Injuries, Non-Graphic Violence, Panic Attacks, Paranoia, Tags May Change, Whump, could be gay if you squint, post episode 4, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 15:16:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10901985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShyAudacity/pseuds/ShyAudacity
Summary: He’s just past the Twilight Drive-In when he notices a man about ten feet in front of him. He’s got at least four inches of height on him, an unkempt beard, and a wooden bat as thick as his forearm. Archie’s palms start to sweat just looking at him.“Can I help you?” he calls, grabbing the man’s attention.The man looks at him, then comes forward. “Yeah, I went looking for the baseball field and got myself lost an- hey, you’re Archie Andrews, right?”“How’d you know that?”“Sorry, I should’ve introduced myself,” he comes closer, his face hardening into a scowl. “My name is Hank Gibson, and Jennifer is my wife.”Archie only has a second to put everything together before the bat connects with his jaw.ORArchie get's his ass kicked, and Jughead is there for the aftermath.





	is it true hurt people hurt people?

**Author's Note:**

> I've been sitting on this since like episode five and I just now finished it...ugh. 
> 
> Unbeta'd and title from Paper Doll by Bea Miller.

He feels like he’s being watched. Given that it’s not the first time that Archie has felt like this, but it somehow feels more real than all the other times before this. Archie doesn’t notice anything out of the ordinary at school, no new students and there’s nothing on the bulletin board in the main office that hasn’t already been there.

He brushes it off as Monday morning jitters, telling himself that he’s being irrational over nothing. He meets up with Jughead at lunch who calls him out on his odd behavior.

“Dude, you’ve looked over your shoulder five times in the last four minutes, what’s your damage?”

“I- what? No I haven’t.”

“Yes, you have, I counted.” Jughead says, his tone condescending. “Seriously though, what’s going on with you today? You’re like number one on the list of Golden Boys in this town, what could you possibly be antsy about?”

“I don’t know, I’m just feeling a little off I guess. It’s probably nothing. Hey, are we still meeting up at Pop’s after school today?” 

“Yeah, I just gotta run home and get something first. I’ll meet you there.”

“Are you sure? Cause I can come with y-.”

“No, that’s okay. I’ll go by myself.” Jughead interrupts. Archie holds up his hands defensively and they finish the rest of their lunch in silence.

When he gets back to fifth period, Archie still finds himself looking over his shoulder and scanning the hallways in between classes. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for, but something just doesn’t feel right to him.

Once the bell rings signaling the end of the day, he makes his way across the football field and takes his shortcut to Pop’s through the woods.

Archie doesn’t like to use it as often as he used to after what happened to Jason, but he goes for it today just to cut time. He’s just past the Twilight Drive-In when he notices a man about ten feet in front of him. He’s got at least four inches of height on him, an unkempt beard, and a wooden bat as thick as his forearm. Archie’s palms start to sweat just looking at him.

“Can I help you?” He calls, grabbing the man’s attention.

The man looks at him, then comes forward. “Yeah, I went looking for the baseball field and got myself lost an- hey, you’re Archie Andrews, right?”

He tenses, he hasn’t seen this guy before, not as far as he remembers. Just as well, the only baseball field in town is two miles in the opposite direction.

“How’d you know that?”

“Sorry, I should’ve introduced myself,” he comes closer, his face hardening into a scowl. “My name is Hank Gibson, and Jennifer is my wife.”

Archie only has a second to put everything together before the bat connects with his jaw.

*  

Jughead all but runs to the Andrews house after school.

It had dawned on him in the middle of third period that he’d left the only good picture of him and his mom at the drive-in. It was the one taken right before everything went bad between herself and Jughead’s dad. Since his mom took off to Toledo with his little sister, leaving him all alone in Riverdale with his dad. He had to get the photo back or Jughead would never forgive himself. He’d get the picture himself, but he didn’t have the keys to the drive-in anymore.

He shows up just as Mr. Andrews, is locking his front door, likely headed to demolish the Twilight drive in.

“Hey, Jug, Archie’s not home yet, but can I help you with something?”

“Yeah, I need you to let me into the drive-in work room.”

“Jughead, you know I can’t do that. I was supposed to have that place torn down this morning, and I would have too if half of my guys hadn’t called in sick. I had to delay it until this afternoon, which is where I’m headed now. So, if you’ll excuse me-.”

“Mr. Andrews, please, it’s important. I wouldn’t be asking, no, scratch that _begging,_ if it wasn’t dire that you let me in there.”

Fred glares at him. “Uh huh, do you want to tell me what’s so dire about me letting you in there.”

“You might not like the answer very much if I tell you.” Jughead grumbles.

Fred opens his car door, then gestures to the passenger’s seat. “I can listen and drive at the same time.”

*

Archie comes to a bit later inside of the drive-in work room, where they stored all of the film reels, he recognized it from the few times that he’d been in there with Jughead. Archie’s jaw hurt like all hell and _yeah, that was a tooth I just spit out_. His shoulder’s ache and it’s then that he realizes that he’s been tied to a chair. A voice speaks from behind him and he nearly jumps out of his skin.

“’Bout time you woke up, sleeping beauty.”

“What do you want with me?” Archie asks, craning his neck to try and see what’s happening behind him. “I didn’t do anything to you.”

“Oh, but you did. You went after my wife, you little bastard.”

“No, no she told me that she wasn’t married, she said that she got a divorce.”

“Yeah well, she lied,” Gibson said, coming into Archie’s line of sight, a crow bar in his hand. “I woke up one morning and she had left me. It took me months to track her here. But somehow, as soon as I found out where she was, she had already left. I asked around and come to find out that some snot-nosed prick had chased her off.”

“I-I didn’t-.” Archie tried, but it was no use. Gibson grabbed him by his hair, forcing him to look up into his icy blue eyes.

“Save it kid, when I’m done here, not a single person in this town will recognize you.”

Archie’s heart seized with fear inside of his chest. He watched as Gibson let go of his hair, then adjusted his grip on the crow bar that was still in his hand. It took everything he had in him not to watch as it finally connected with his ribcage. He didn’t bother keeping his mouth shut; he knew that no one would hear his cries of agony all the way out here.

*

As they pulled up, Fred and Jughead noticed Sheriff Keller’s squad car parked outside of the drive-in. Jughead had just been close to explaining that _no, I’ve been_ living _at the drive-in, not hiding my stash there_. Yet, they’d both gotten distracted when they saw the Sheriff and the conversation had quickly ceased.

“Sheriff Keller, is there a problem here?” Fred asked as he exited his truck, Jughead in tow.

“A call came into the station a little bit ago about some questionable sounds coming from inside the drive-in. Do you mind if I take a look inside before you tear it down?”

“No, no go ahead.”

As Fred Andrews opened the door for the Sheriff, Jughead could swear that everything after that happened in slow motion.

First, the door swung open and he saw a grown man standing over a teenager, holding a stun gun to the center of his chest. Then, the Sheriff ran in and tackled the man, pinning him to the floor. Next, Jughead realized that it wasn’t just any teenager, but his best friend Archie, with Fred still standing next to him.

All he could do was stand there and watch as Sheriff Keller put cuffs on the mystery man and pulled him over to the squad car. He looked around and realized that Fred had gone into the dingy room at some point, placing his hand on his son’s cheek.

“Archie? Kid, can you hear me? Hey, hey it’s Dad, I’m here. I’ll be right back, okay?” Fred stood shortly after that, pushing past Jughead. His phone was already pressed to his ear, likely calling for an ambulance. After watching him walk back towards his truck, Jughead looked back into the small room, looking directly at his friend. As he waltzed in, he inspected the damage.

Archie’s t-shirt is tattered to shreds around his ribcage, streaks of blood staining the white material. Jughead can already see the telltale signs of a bruise coming to life on his jaw and underneath his eye left. He seems to be barely lucid, Jughead feels like he needs to do something. He goes around to the back of the chair where Archie’s hands are still tied together and begins to loosen the knot. Once it’s been undone, Archie starts to slump to the side and Jughead is quick to move, making sure he doesn’t hit the floor.  

“Whoa. Hey, _hey, easy,_ buddy. It’s okay. I got you.” Jughead says, shifting so that Archie can lie comfortably in his lap. Apart of him feels mortified, like he shouldn’t even be here in the first place. Another part of him is unsure what to do, so he sticks to brushing the sweaty hair away from his friend’s forehead. Jughead tries to keep him awake, tries to get him to focus on something, _anything_.

“Arch? Archie look at me, you can’t fall asleep, okay? You probably have a concussion, that’s bad news for everyone, especially if you black out.”

Archie twitches off and on as he lays there, looking up at Jughead blearily. He feels hazy from the beating he just received, like he’s watching all of this happen from outside of his body. He watches Jughead place a protective yet steadying hand over his chest, watches his body try to reach for that same hand and fail miserably. Archie hears someone else use his voice to speak a stuttering statement.

“J-Jug… Juggie.”

“No, no don’t talk, alright?” Jughead says quietly, thumb hovering over Archie's forehead. “Just save your strength until the paramedics get here, huh? Just a few more minutes Arch, I promise. Just a few more minutes and then we never have to come back here again.”

Archie nods at Jughead, or maybe it’s just a muscle spasm, either way, Archie shuts up and somehow it puts him at ease.

It feels like only a matter of seconds before the paramedics arrive. They pull Archie away from Jughead and onto a backboard, assessing him and putting an oxygen mask over his face. He’s on a gurney and being wheeled away before Jughead can ask anyone if he’s going to be okay. He watches them load Archie into the ambulance and drive off, Fred following behind them in his truck. He looks over to Sheriff Keller’s squad car just as it pulls out of the lot, leaving Jughead alone.

Jughead stands there for a long while, wondering just how his life ended up like this. Then, his legs carried him away from that godforsaken place, taking him somewhere that has always made him feel safe.

He arrives at Pop’s in half the time it would usually take him to get there, intellectually he knows it’s due to the adrenaline that’s coursing through his body. Jughead presses himself firmly into the nearest empty booth he can find as soon as he walks in, ignoring the bizarre look that Pop Tate is giving him.

His hands shake as he lies down in the booth, sinking down so no one can see him; his legs hang off of the edge, jittery in their movements. He presses his fist into his eyes taking a shuddering, deep breath for the first time since he arrived at the drive-in earlier. If Jughead has a nearly heart-stopping panic attack while he’s down there, he decides that no one needs to know about it.

The photo of his mother is long forgotten in the mess of the day.

*

Archie doesn’t come to school for two days after he gets his ass beat by Gibson. When he returns on Thursday, Jughead hears him in Chemistry class, telling Betty and Veronica some lie about getting into a fight with the staircase and losing. He rolls his eyes, but doesn’t call Archie out on his bluff. They don’t say anything to each other in the hallways, in fact, Archie barely even meets Jughead’s eye when they pass each other. It makes him feel like he’s done something wrong, but he can’t place his finger on what that is.

On Friday morning, he’s in the library when he gets a text from Archie that reads:

_10:15 do you wanna come over after school_

Not wanting to seem overeager, Jughead waits before he sends back:

_10:21 Sure, but only if there’s food._

Archie responds with a laughing emoticon a few minutes later, and he smiles to himself, already looking forward to the end of the day.

*

Jughead goes straight to the Andrews house after school, just like he had a few days earlier, except with a different purpose this time around. He feels tense as he walks up the front steps, but that feeling fades away when the door opens before he can even get there.

Archie stands in the doorway, a devilish grin spread across his face. “Hey, come on, I got a new video game ready upstairs.”

Jughead takes a moment to drop his backpack at the door and pet Vegas before he follows Archie up the stairs. Once he gets there, the first thing he notices is that the controllers aren’t even out, and both Archie’s Xbox and TV are turned off. Jughead pulls a confused face before he faces his friend.

“Where’s the game?”

“Oh, yeah, that was a lie.” Archie says with a small smirk. Jughead gets a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“Then what are we doing here?”

Archie goes to his desk, picking something up and handing it to Jughead.

Jughead gasps, immediately recognizing the photo. It’s the one of him and his mom, the one that he’d left at the drive-in work room. It’s from Memorial Day earlier this year. Jughead is pointing at something up in the sky, his mom is looking at him with more fondness than he’s ever seen in all his life, her arm slung over his shoulder. If he’d known she was looking at him, Jughead would have met her gaze. He doesn’t know who took the photo, but _damn_ is he glad they did.

He hasn’t taken his eyes off the photo when he speaks up. “Where did you get this?”

“When I got brought in for questioning the other day, Sheriff Keller had it in an evidence box on the table. I snatched it while he wasn’t looking. You’re not mad, are you?”

“Far from it… hey, can I ask you a question that you don’t have to answer?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“That guy at the drive-in who beat you up, what did he want? I mean, why did he go after you?”

Archie stiffens where he leans against his desk, he crosses his arms over his chest. “He uh… he’s Grundy’s husband, or ex-husband I guess. He tracked her here, then got…upset when he learned that I’d driven her out of town. I guess he wanted me to pay for it.”

“ _Shit_ … shit man, that’s awful. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, you didn’t know,” Archie tells him, scrubbing a hand over the back of this neck. “Can I ask you something now?”

Jughead nods, Archie continues. “What was your photo doing at the drive-in?”

_Whoomp, there it is_ Jughead thinks to himself. He could do it, he could tell his best friend how he’s been homeless since before the school year started. He could tell Archie how Pop Tate let him sleep on the floor in the back room for a week before he started sleeping at the drive-in. He _should_ tell Archie all of this; instead, Jughead blurts out the first thing he can think of.

“Could I spend the night?”

He says yes, and Jughead is thankful that Archie doesn’t call him out on changing the subject. They do eventually pull out Archie’s Xbox, playing GTA until their pizza arrives. Jughead ignores the hiss Archie let’s out when his ribcage brushes the counter top in the kitchen. The two of them laugh together more than they have in months, it feels so familiar to Jughead that he realizes how much he’s missed it.

Apart of him wishes that he could have this all the time, he hopes that someday it’ll be true.     

**Author's Note:**

> That was fun, wasn't it? Leave a comment or a kudos if you thought so. If you have a Riverdale request/prompt, you can leave it for me here or at my Riverdale tumblr archieandrewsprotectionsquad. Thanks for reading, have a great day!


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